Everybody Needs Mom

I will preface this post by saying that last week was a long week. I was really looking forward to the weekend to catch up on laundry, Christmas shopping, and oh yeah - SLEEP.

What I neglected to mention in my last post was that Saturday morning, Husband woke up with a sore throat and feeling generally crummy, so he skipped out on the Christmas activities. So Lucy and I had a busy morning as chronicled, after which I ran her up to my sister-in-law's house to spend a few hours while I attended an important event with Brandon. Both Husband and I were supposed to go, but he still wasn't feeling well enough.

After spending the time with Brandon, I went back to pick up Lucy, and on returning to my car realized I had a voice mail. The message was from an Emergency Room nurse telling me my husband was there, but not telling me why. 

So...I dropped Lucy off at home with Brandon, and headed to the hospital to find Husband. A couple of hours later he was released, diagnosed with a bad case of strep and some other complications for which they gave him four different prescriptions. I had run back home to get Lucy and Brandon in the meantime, so Brandon drove Husband and his car home, while Lucy and I went to the pharmacy to pick up the meds. Turns out, the Target pharmacy closes at 6PM on Saturdays, and it was 6:30. Everywhere else was closed. We picked up a few other things and headed home, exhausted. 

Sunday morning was moving along pretty regularly. Lucy and I attended church and Sunday school, and then hustled home so I could finally go pick up Husband's prescriptions. The pharmacy opened at 9AM, but we had to be to church by then, because our family was scheduled to light the Advent candles. This involves one person reading a passage while the other lights the candles (and the kids observe). So, absent my husband, I had to read and then the light the candles, causing a moment of awkward silence with all congregational eyes on me and my daughter. 

Then, after Sunday School which I taught, back to home to drop Lucy off, and left again for the Target pharmacy. When I returned, she was sleeping and had been doing so for about an hour. I took the opportunity to do a little work (in hindsight, I should have napped!) since I had intended to go in that afternoon with Lucy in tow, but had already decided against it because of the weather. At around 3:30, Lucy finally woke up. I didn't think too much of the 3+ hour nap, as we'd had a busy day on Saturday. But as she was eating a snack, she complained her throat hurt. I grabbed a flashlight and took a look...and it didn't look good. 

Target Clinic was closing at 4PM, but I found a CVS Minute Clinic that was open until 5:30. We slipped and slid through the snow and slush to get there at 4:30PM, only to find the kiosk outside of the doors housing a nurse practitioner AND a doctor indicated they weren't letting any other patients sign in. There were three people ahead of us, and they didn't think they could get done with those by closing time. By this time I was getting pretty frustrated.

ALL I NEEDED WAS A THROAT SWAB AND A PRESCRIPTION.

My remaining (more expensive) option was Urgent Care at our usual clinic, which was open until 5:00. Luckily it was nearby, but I was cutting it close by arriving at 4:55. It was not too busy, and they were very accommodating. We got in to see a nurse pretty quickly, and then the doctor to confirm indeed, Lucy had strep. I was offered the usual course of antibiotics, or a one-time penicillin shot. Since I wasn't sure if I could actually get anywhere to pick up meds, the shot appealed to me...but certainly not to Lucy. As suspected, she freaked. I had to bribe her with a shake and a stuffed animal. After the shot, we had to wait 20 more minutes to make sure she didn't have a reaction to the penicillin. 

You got all that? We're now at about 6:20 on Sunday night. Thankfully, Husband had ordered pizza for supper so we didn't have to think about what to cook. I got the little one showered and to bed, and tried to make up some of the lost work hours I knew I needed to get in to not make Monday horrible. Which means nothing got done around this house that needed to get done.

Newsflash, Monday (today) was still horrible. I didn't get home until after 9PM and tomorrow I have a night meeting, and Wednesday night an event...

Everybody needs Mom, and Mom is TIRED. 

The irony? It was the annual Ladies' Spa Weekend at Grandview Lodge this weekend. For many reasons, I opted not to go this year. For many of those same reasons, this year I probably needed it the most.

If I can just make it to the end of the week, then perhaps I will get to sleep. Mmmm, sleeeeeeep....and PLEASE, don't let me or anyone else get sick!

We All Have Our Demons

I was in the bathroom at work today, and as I stopped at the sink to wash my hands, I noticed the woman a couple sinks down feverishly soaping and wringing her hands under the running water. It actually made me wash my hands longer, because she was so into it and I didn’t want to seem like a slacker. I didn’t think too much of it really, because I’ve seen a few people before who really try to stick to the 2-minute hand washing rule.

What I did notice was when she stepped away from the sink to get a paper towel, she left the water running. As she stood there drying her hands I wondered if she just forgot to shut it off, but no – she came back over with a new, clean paper towel in her hand, using it to shut off the faucet. She didn’t want to touch the faucet with her clean hands.

She tossed this paper towel in the trash, got another paper towel, and used it to open the door handle. Apparently the faucet germs could not mingle with the door handle germs.

I can appreciate cleanliness, but I admit I address the little germs lurking everywhere by just trying not to think about them too much. I attempt to keep things clean, but also recognize that it’s nearly impossible to rid any given surface of all germs, and I’d really like to spend my life living vs. constantly cleaning. There is also a little thing called immunity building that needs to occur. Just my take.

Anyway, everyone has their issues, pet peeves, whatever you call them. This woman is a germophobe - whatever. What struck me is the fact that she ran water for 2 minutes to wash her hands, let the water run for another minute while drying her hands, and used at least 4 paper towels (that I could see) in the process.

As I was lamenting the cumulative use of natural resources this woman must generate over the course of a day, it also occurred to me what a process it must be for her just to get through a simple activity, and how positively exhausting that must be to sustain. Then I felt a little bad.

I hope you find peace, hand-washing lady.